suggested to the accomplished Professor Hommel, of Munich, that they
originally represented two distinct sounds. This was at once found to be
the case in the inscriptions of the Pyramids, and Professor Erman has
since worked out the matter in detail. It now appears that there were
no homophones in the alphabet of the Early Empire.

Fokeigx Relations of Egypt.

An important work on this subject is W. M. Midler's Emopa und Asien
in den Aegyptischen Tnsehriften. The book is exceedingly ingenious, and
displays its author's wide acquaintance with the Egyptian texts of all
periods and in all characters. The tribes of Ethiopia and Libya are of
such small importance, excepting to the ethnographer, that their
omission does not affect the value of the book to the ordinary student.
The abundant quotations should constitute it the standard work of refer-
ence on the subject for a long time to come. It is thirty years since
anything of the same kind has been attempted.

Professor Hommel has endeavoured to show (in Der Bdbylonische
Ursprung der agyptischen Kultur) a connection between the earliest
civilizations of the Euphrates and the Nile, and, with Mr. 0. J. Ball, has
exhibited some very remarkable coincidences between the earliest cunei-
form or linear signs of Babylonia and the hieroglyphs of Egypt. Pro-
fessor Erman has examined the ancient hieroglyphic roots that have, for
one reason or another, been connected by modern writers with Semitic
words. Unfortunately the results of his careful article in the Zeitschrift
der Beutschen Morge)dandischen Gesellschaft are chiefly negative, although
the professor believes that the two languages show signs of an extremely
early and far-off relationship.

Miscellaneous.

M. de Morgan, the new Director-General of the Antiquities of Egypt,
assisted by MM. Brugsch-Bey and Daressy, practically completed the
arrangement of the monuments in the Ghizeh Museum during the summer,
so that no less than forty-six new rooms were opened to the public in the
autumn; at the same time a useful Guide was prepared by M. Philippe
Virey, of the French Archaeological Mission. More recently still a
laboratory and two exhibition rooms have been set apart for Egyptian
anthropology, or rather anthropography; here will be studied the
physical characteristics of the mummies and skeletons of the ancients.
The department is placed under the care of Dr. Fouquet.